\u201cYou are Ghanaian?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYour name is Yeboah and you can\u2019t speak Twi?\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been interesting to see the conflicting emotions and reactions that I\u2019ve experienced here regarding my nationality and cultural identity. Having not grown up here I\u2019m considered \u201cnot really Ghanaian.\u201d Another curiosity is that Yeboah is originally an Ashanti name, and it is so common especially here being in the heart of the Ashanti region. I hear it around me all the time. \u00a0It\u2019s almost like Smith or Johnson. \u00a0My family however, are not Ashanti, but Ga, a smaller tribe that live in Accra. So I have an Ashanti name but I\u2019m Ga, and I don\u2019t speak Twi and didn\u2019t grow up here. My family lived in UK, Nigeria, Botswana and now the US where I have now naturalized. The struggle third culture kids face when asked the question \u201cwhere are you from?\u201d This is often difficult to answer. The author Taiye Selasi offers us a solution. Proposing the concept of \u201clocality\u201d instead of \u201cnationality.” See her TED talk here:<\/p>\n